Home Resorts SHEEP SHEARING THE TRADITIONAL WAY – RURAL MOUNTAIN FARMING IN CENTRAL PORTUGAL

SHEEP SHEARING THE TRADITIONAL WAY – RURAL MOUNTAIN FARMING IN CENTRAL PORTUGAL

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SHEEP SHEARING THE TRADITIONAL WAY – RURAL MOUNTAIN FARMING IN CENTRAL PORTUGAL

Hi there! I am Joseph.
I have been an immigrant / expat living in central Portugal along with my beautiful girlfriend Mariana for six years now.

Together Mariana, my father Clinton and myself, would like to show you a bit of the daily goings on around our Portuguese farm / homestead / smallholding and all of the work we are doing whilst renovating, starting building projects, working with our livestock, DIY and trying to grow our little families own food!

In this episode we welcome you to join us in early summer time as we go about our daily goings on around our farm and the local surroundings, here in central Portugal.

We begin this week on our dear friend and neighbours farm, Sr. Pinto, if you have been with us for a while you will know him from previous videos where we have helped each other out.

I introduce myself and point out the local surroundings that I stand in front of. The farm is situated on the Gardunha mountains and has spectacular views to our local village.

The sheep shearers arrive right on cue and begin setting up their shearing tools and everything they need. My brother in law Lloyd, my father Clinton and myself start grabbing the sheep one by one and carrying them to the shearing station. They hogtie their legs up (an old traditional way of doing shearing not copied by most of the Western world) and begin taking their woolly jackets off.

The sheep appreciate this very much as they cannot naturally shed or moult their wool and it is a necessity to ensure they do not overheat during the hot summer months.

Once we finished with Sr. Pintos 15 / 20 sheep we make our way up to his beautiful old stone ruin and sit at the banquet table, he provides us all with lunch of presunto, ham, regional cheese and of course wine and beer was flowing well. We needed this lunch stop as it was somewhat of a hot day, being close to 40 degrees centigrade, 100 degrees Fahrenheit. My poor English blood cannot cope with that for a sustained period!

After lunch we made our way to our own farm, where our girls were waiting to be sheared, we rounded them up, led them all to the barn and began taking each girl, one by one to the shearing station to get that heavy coat taken off.

At the end of the day I thanked Luis and Ricardo, the two brothers for shearing alongside me and asked them if we should take a beer in the local café, which of course we did.

The next morning I walk up to the sheep pastures with Mariana and Chloe, we pick some fruit and feed it to the sheep, namely cherries and nesperas (loquats). A few for our basket and then head down to the veggie garden, here I pick a head of green lettuce for the kitchen and a head of red lettuce for the chickens.

Back up in the farmhouse my little sous chef, Chloe, and I prepare a lovely light salad, which we enjoy after such a hot week of farm work.

Thank you so very much for watching along with us this week, I hope you enjoyed the episode and I hope you all have an amazing week ahead.

Thank you, see you in the next one!

See our journey to self sufficiency / permaculture / organic farming living in Portugal, trying to produce as much of our own food planting vegetables, growing fruit trees as well as looking after all our animals, such as our chickens, turkeys, geese, ducks, quail, rabbits and sheep – Shortly pigs too!

– Growing vegetables, raising meat and foraging on our cherry farm in Portugal’s Beira baixa, Fundão

Follow us on Instagram @farmerforfun

IF YOU ARE PORTUGUESE OR TRYING TO LEARN PORTUGUESE PERHAPS CONSIDER TURNING ON SUBTITLES FOR THIS VIDEO, MARIANA & I HAVE CREATED SUBTITLES IN PORTUGUESE, MAYBE THEY MIGHT COME IN HANDY WITH LEARNING A WORD OR TWO! CLICK THE ‘CLOSED CAPTIONS’ BUTTON ON THE VIDEO AND THE SUBTITLE OPTIONS WILL APPEAR.

PLEASE HELP US TO CONTINUE CREATING THIS CONTENT BY CONTRIBUTING TO US ON PATREON

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37 COMMENTS

  1. aw shame to hear he didn't get it sold. great video as always Joseph

    the shearing helps with the heat, but what about sunburn then? the first ones skin seems very light? they don't have issues with that or?

    Ricardo eyes the camera very suspeciously 😀

  2. Driving round your area now, eating cherries 🍒 after the Fundao market 😃 saw all the fruit trees and plug plants for sale! Love the farm but unfortunately it’s out of our budget.

  3. Hi Joe beautiful vidio 👍, so lovely to see Mariana & our beautiful Chloe bless her, good job done with all the shearing hard work & hot for you all , bet the sheep 🐑 feel cooler now , salad 🥗 you did looked very tasty , take care all of you , love you all XXX💕💕💕🐑

  4. Hi Joseph I think the sheep are very happy with their wintercoats off…You all look great , but little Chloe is the cutest! Kindest regards and thank you for your videos.(Love them.) from the Netherlands!

  5. Well, Joseph, there are actors who won’t work with animals and children. Farmers shouldn’t either 😉. Cloe and the sheep stole the show. What do you do with the fleeces? Are they suitable for yarn?

  6. That was a lovely video Joseph. It was so nice seeing your girls again. I enjoyed seeing the sheep shearing and your salad tutorial. Can’t wait until the next video. 😁

  7. Hello, excellent video of the sheep cutting their wool, it made me remember when I was little they did it in my house. I love your channel. God bless you and your family and your beautiful baby…hugs from Venezuela

  8. Great video again Joseph. I really enjoy seeing the care you put into your farm and animals. The salad looked tasty too. Of course Chloe steals the show. How cute is she! Looking forward to next week's video already. 👋👋👍👍

  9. Hi Joseph,

    We were supposed to be leaving for portugal this morning but the flight was cancelled !:( however we are now booked on one on Tuesday.
    Can you tell me the cost of the farm please and maybe we could make an appointment to come and view?

    Thanks for that
    Jackie

  10. Glad to see Mariana and Chloe back in the farm 👍 😊 Oh, Chloe looks so cute in the Chef’s hat … 😃
    The flock must be so relieved with their new cooler look .😃 It’s so nice to see how neighbors help each other. My kind of community !!! 👍 👌
    It sure was another enjoyable video !!! Cheers Joseph !!! 😊

  11. Hallo Joseph, once again , an enjoyable video of your relaxed and calm farm life..another recipe I'll try in our summer😁. Chloe is growing so quick .. enjoy and treasure her
    Warm regards🥰

  12. Joseph and Mariana,Chloe is gorgeous,so pretty!What a lovely video ,I love watching you ,you have such a beautiful farm and I love the way you take care of it!!
    Love all your recipes Joseph ,they ard all amazingly delicious 🤤

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